WHAT'S ON YOUR WORKTABLE?

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Brees Mimi Design Studio! Come on in! So happy you are joining me today for a quick peek inside the place I call "studio".  Today I'll reveal my worktable.  It's my "go to" place, my favorite spot to be, where I feel completely at home and were the ideas flow freely. 

Work table in studio

You will find me here most afternoons (if I'm not working or taking care of the grand-kids) and sometimes very late at night when I'm able to sneak in a few minutes before bedtime.  

The worktable is approximately 5-6 feet long and 3 feet wide, a standard folding table from Office Depot. In order to protect (lol) the lovely brown laminate finish, the work surface is covered with several sheets of watercolor paper. This idea comes from Jennibellie Studio, to use watercolor paper and wipe the excess paint from brushes here and later use this paper for other art projects. Since the watercolor paper surface is a recent addition to my table (previously used brown craft paper), I'll have to let you know how it works out. 

Work surface protected by water color paper.

To tell the truth, I couldn't stand looking at all that white paper....so I painted a few ideas on one side and use the other to wipe excess paint on. 

 On top of the w/c paper is a non-stick craft sheet, in my immediate working area. It is perfect for a dab of acrylic paint or spray inks when a palette isn't needed and wipes off easily! Even acrylics can be peeled off the surface if left too long.  I LOVE the craft sheet! 

Non stick craft sheet in immediate work space.

On the worktable I have my essential tools which are: acrylic paints, glue & gesso, pens, brushes, ink, paper towels & baby wipes. 

The pink metal tub holds bottles of glue, glue sticks, gesso, mini paint palettes and water containers (recycled fruit cups or yogurt containers). A revolving rack (repurposed spice caddy) houses artist acrylics and my favorite handmade basket holds fave acrylic craft paints.

Current fave acrylic colors include Poodleskirt Pink, Whispering Turquoise, Citron Green, Slate Grey and Black. 
A mason jar and silver topped glass containers hold Washi tapes. 

Above in thrift store finds of ceramic, stone and metal cups my collection of pens, markers and scissors are corraled. It looks like the mini stapler has "attached" itself (sorry, couldn't resist) to the metal cup and awl is buried in the ceramic holder. Small metal dishes hold miscellaneous items that stray across the surface from time to time. 

Paint brushes, plastic utensils, ink and credit cards

The lovely metal box is another thrift store find! The lid of the box remains open at all times for quick access to brushes and various utensils used for spreading or applying paint and gesso. All are contained in recycled glass jars (salsa-yum!) within the box. Ooops, I see the pink stapler has also attached itself to the metal box!  Another glass jar contains old credit/gift cards (to spread glue, paint or gesso), water brushes, bone folder, and sponges.  The metal box resides on top of a mini wooden slat table (repurposed from a picnic basket), underneath the wooden mini table is a divided glass pickle dish (thrift store find) holding black ink pads, India ink bottles and date stamp, the dish can be slid out when needed.   A spray bottle of water, paper towel holder, package of wet wipes and a bottle of water are near by.  

Inspiration board

Inspiration comes from many sources and I keep mine right in front of my worktable!  On this board is a background of BH&G paint color swatches, you know the pages that the newest colors are on? Here's a fun page at BH&G to test your color personality!  Each season, my board is changed out and the background colors with the season. Then I add my favorite poems, quotes, color palettes, and various items that catch my attention. Strings of glass beads, pieces of jewelry I like, cards with string or threads, cutout paper dolls, crochet flowers, it is here for inspiration.

My current project: hand painted paper and sewn covers for watercolor journals. Both journals have hand sewn watercolor signatures inside and flaps on the cover which secure the papers within. My inspiration came from Mary Ann Moss SEWN. Go check it out! 

I hope you have enjoyed the Work Table tour and that you will come back next week as we continue A Peek Inside The Studio!  

I'd love it if you would leave a comment so that I know you were here! I love hearing from you! 

See you next week, until then....

BEE CREATIVE!

Suzy

PSS.....BREAKING NEWS! A day late to the party on WOYWW (that's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday)but I thought I would post this anyway. Let you know more of the details in next post! 

ANOTHER PEEK INSIDE.....

Hi Everyone!

Last week I gave a sneak peek into my new Moleskine journal and I've a few more pages to share with you today.  But first take a look at some pre-prepped pages I made at the end of the journal.  

 See that half moon shape on the right?  Using a glue runner, I stuck two pages together on the short edges of the book, then punched the half moon shape with my circle punch. This handy dandy little pouch stores my watercolor pencil palettes.








What you ask is a watercolor pencil palette?

Inktense watercolor pencil palette

 It's a palette that holds watercolor pencil blobs!  It's made by heavily rubbing watercolor pencils in a crosshatched pattern on watercolor paper (300 gram), building up layers of color. 

Neocolor watercolor crayons

 You can learn all about this by visiting Jenny's Blog and watching her Youtube video here.  
 

Ready for journal entry or sketching

  Here's another pre-prepped page (s) ready for a journal entry or a sketch or painting. I stenciled the edges and used watercolor pencils to fill in some of the design and not being happy with the pages, I used gesso to cover them over and leave a hint of color in the background. 









Some days I'm stumped for ideas and other days they just flow out of my hand easily, this particular day while eating lunch the design just jumped out at me! 

 I had pre-prepped these two pages with a bit of Dylusion spray inks and alphabet stamp and thought it would make a great background for my plate drawing. 

I painted the second plate the following day and journaled about my mother  because she was the inspiration behind this plate collection.  

This just goes to show the simplest every day items can inspire our creativity. Look around today and see what inspires you! 

Bee Creative,

Suzy   


LINKING TO: Jennibellie Studio ; Paint Party Friday; Art Journal Every Day

Pink Journal Peek

Hi Everyone!

This post is for my sister Anne, who said she would like to see what was in the Orange and Pink Portfolio and the Pink “stitched” journal.  Well, sister I’d love to show you the Portfolio style journal but there isn’t anything in there yet!  Teesha Moore has an excellent How To video on YouTube, just click on the RED link if you would like to see how I made this journal like Teesha’s (minus the collage art).

Pink & Orange Portfolio Style Journal

Okay, here’s a peek inside the Pink journal.

 

Front Cover

 The cover is made from 300gm weight water color paper (140 lb. inside) which is VERY sturdy.  I sopped up a bit of water color paint and some acrylics from another project.  

Back

A band of water color paper circles around the front and back. 

Obviously, it still needs a little something, something to finish off the banded label. 

Art Statement

On the cover page I put one of my artist statements/disclaimers: Art has many forms. It may look REAL different from Yours. That's why it is called Art.

 

First Page Jitters

The first page of a new journal always gives me pause.  I don’t know what to put there really, so I just goofed around with some water colors and ink.  Eventually I came back to the page and finished up with some journaling about my page angst and now I actually like it (somewhat).

The Eyes Have It

I was visiting http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.co.uk/ the other day and Jenny had a great idea for covering her work surface (mine is usually covered with brown kraft paper) with water color paper and wiping her brushes and excess paints on it, she later uses it in other art projects.  I mention this because I did put w/c paper on my work surface, pretty soon my paints were out and I was doodling on the paper with paint. Came up with a lovely piece that could be an "eye" (or flower center) and decided to add a version of the “eye” in my journal.

A Rose is a Rose

I saw my neighbor's climbing roses blooming on the fence the other day and this page was born! It's all ready for journaling or more drawing.

Rose page ready for journaling

Played around with some of the grands watercolor pens spritzed with water to spread them across the page.

 

New Colors

My granddaughters, Brianne and Lyla, love to paint, so I'm always looking for new colors to add to the palette.  Alisa Burke’s lovely palette of colors and delightful style really inspires me. I know, really? Me? Soft Colors? What!) I picked up some last week.  This is a bit more intense than I wanted it to be, I'm trying to lighten up but the colors kept calling to be darker. I love the pen and ink bottle stamp picked up at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks. 

What inspires your journal pages?

Happy Coloring! 
Suzy

  

Linking to: http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/;Crafty Thursday Obsessions